Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Kim Budil has been selected by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business for 2023. The annual list, in its 15th year, recognizes individuals making an impact in society via daring achievements in their chosen fields, from tech to design to healthcare. Budil was selected for leading the team that achieved nuclear fusion ignition.
“At LLNL, more than 8,300 people are dedicated to harnessing leading-edge science and technology to address some of the most significant challenges in national security and global stability facing our nation and the world. This work requires exceptional creativity and real technical innovation – “Big Ideas” – to enable meaningful impact,” Budil said. “It is an honor to be recognized alongside other leaders who strive to make a difference.”
Budil is the 13th director of LLNL, where she leads a workforce of approximately 8,300 employees and manages an annual operating budget of $3 billion.
Installation of the more than two Exaflops supercomputer El Capitan is underway at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California.
To be the third exascale-class supercomputer in the U.S., El Capitan will likely be the most powerful supercomputer in the world once it goes live in 2024.
“We’ve begun receiving & installing components for El Capitan, NNSA’s first exascale supercomputer,” Livermore Lab said in a tweet. “While we’re still a ways from deploying it for national security purposes in 2024, it’s exciting to see years of work becoming reality.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that he would have a veto over any use of the tactical nuclear weapons that Russia is stationing on his territory, Reuters reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in March that he would order the deployment of lower-yield tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, the first relocation of such warheads outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Putin said the deployment of the weapons did not contravene the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 as the weapons would be controlled by Russia, just as U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe are formally controlled by the United States.
Film director Christopher Nolan has revealed how he created the look of the Trinity nuclear test explosion without the use of computer graphics for the movie “Oppenheimer.”
Nolan, who directed the “Dark Knight” Batman trilogy, insisted that computer graphics would cheapen the effect of the movie on audiences. He filmed much of the movie in New Mexico, including at the house in which J. Robert Oppenheimer lived while shepherding the Manhattan Project during World War II. The Exchange Monitor was given a peek inside the home during a recent trip to Los Alamos.
The house in Los Alamos, N.M., where J. Robert Oppenheimer and family lived during the Manhattan Project. (Photo by Dan Parsons)
Oppenheimer’s living room, where he often hosted martini parties while working on the Manhattan Project. (Photo by Dan Parsons)
For the Trinity explosion in the film, the special effects crew, led by Scott R. Fisher, employed a traditional technique known as Forced Perspective, using scaled-down models, Movieweb reports.
“The intense fire during the explosion was an amalgamation primarily of gasoline and propane … due to its high energy output in terms of the pyrotechnic aspect,” Fisher told Movieweb. “The addition of aluminum powder and magnesium aimed to recreate the blinding flash commonly associated with a nuclear explosion. The team’s intention was to create a visually striking effect that would leave a lasting impression on the audience, akin to the brightness experienced during an actual nuclear event.”
